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Monday, 9 September 2013

Are Young Women Who Drink More Likely to Develop Breast Cancer?

New study identifies critical time period for lifetime cancer risk, but does not examine specific effects of wine

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have published
findings that indicate women who drink alcohol regularly while young may
increase their lifetime risk for breast cancer. The authors argue that
young women should drink less than a glass a day, but also say they have
not studied wine specifically.

Several past scientific studies have addressed the relationship
between alcohol consumption and cancer, but this work focused on the
effect of the timing of alcohol exposure. Published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute,
the study considered 91,005 mothers who participated in the Nurses’
Health Study II from 1989 through 2009. None had a history of breast
cancer at the outset, and all were polled on their alcohol consumption
in early life. The 20-year investigation tracked subjects’ alcohol
consumption and followed the development of breast cancer and
proliferative benign breast disease (BBD), a known predictor of breast
cancer.

According to Ying Liu, instructor at Washington University School of
Medicine and lead author, her team found that a woman’s drinking habits
between menarche (the time of her first menstrual period) and her first
full-term pregnancy have a linear relationship to her breast cancer
risk. For every 10 grams per day of alcohol consumed on average during
this time period, a woman’s likelihood of developing breast cancer
increases by 11 percent, and her likelihood of developing BBD increases
by 16 percent. (A typical glass of wine contains about 14 grams of
alcohol.)Put simply, Liu told Wine Spectator, “The more you drink before [your] first pregnancy, the higher the risk of breast cancer.”

Why does the time period between menarche and the first pregnancy
matter so much? “Breast tissue undergoes rapid cellular proliferation
during this time,” said Liu, making the body more susceptible to
carcinogens. Pregnancy “induces the full differentiation of the breast
tissue,” which lessens the impact of carcinogenic exposure. Subsequent
pregnancies strengthen this effect. Irrespective of alcohol consumption,
there is considerable evidence that a woman increases her breast cancer
risk when the interval between menarche and first pregnancy is longer.

Thus Liu was not surprised that alcohol, which previous studies have
pegged as a carcinogen, should affect breast cancer risk when consumed
regularly during this critical period in a woman’s life. “I think young
women should consider [reducing] their alcohol intake to less than one
drink a day, based on our study,” Liu said.

The Washington University study did not consider whether various
types of alcohol could have different effects. Liu noted that future
research would do well to distinguish wine, beer and liquor consumption
when polling its subjects. It’s possible that red wine may affect cancer
development differently from other types of alcohol because of the
presence of antioxidants, whose ability to fight cancer
has been a subject of debate in recent years. And those worried about
cancer must weigh the potential cost of not drinking against the proven
benefits of red wine in fighting heart disease.

Liu and her team will next focus on potentially protective agents
that could counter the adverse effects they have found in alcohol. She
hypothesizes that exercise and a high-fiber diet during the window
between menarche and first pregnancy could protect women from lifetime
breast cancer risk.